to give masses of the people artistic ideas.
The first test they apply to any new ma-
chine is that of utihty. In the United
States this is a fundamental element of
the early success of the watch com-
panies. Automatic machines are very
costly. No one can afford to make
automatic machines for a thousand
watches, or for a hundred thousand.
It is only when a simple type can be
made and have an enormous sale, that
machinery can be extensively applied.
In the United States the company of
which I speak barely lived until tiie Civil
War broke out. Immediately there was
a great demand for watches, strong, ser-
viceable, uniform in quahty ; there was
an opportunity to make a simple type.
The buyers were not critical as to finish,
if only the watches would run. They
did not require art in the case, so long
as it was strong. A minute a day was
accurate enough for their use, and the
art could easily enough produce such
timepieces. There was the opportunity.
The factory which paid no dividend at
the beginning of the war, paid 4 per cent,
the first year, 11 per cent the second,
22 per cent the third, and two dividends
of 60 and 150 per cent, the last year of
the war. It would have been impossible
to pay any such dividends except that
the watches were of simple types — inter-
changeable parts — screws, plates — ^hands,
wheels, and dials, all manufactured by ma-
chinists, running well-made machines,
under the supervision of machinist fore-
men.
The machinery was built and paid for.
The great questions of getting homogen-
eous raw material, of learning the capac-
ity of machines, of determining what kind
of labor — ^whether of boys or girls, or
men or women — was most efficient in
any given department, had been settled.
Through the simple, cheap, but efficient
work of the years from 1857 to 1865, the
whole art of machinery, as applied to
making watches, was being studied by
men of the highest mechanical and busi-
ness ability, and without the slightest
regard to any preconceived trade notions
or customs or traditions. The great idea
was that millions of now civilized people
wanted watches, with China, and Japan,
and India and Africa yet to be heard
from.
To create and to supply any such pos-
sible demand would require the same
business organization as the supply of
cottons or metal wara There must be
an organization reaching from the selec-
tion of the raw material to the selling of
the product in distant markets. To se-
cure homogeneity of material, i.e., uni-
form texture of the metals employed,
without which machine-made watches
would be of temporary value, the most
recent advances in physics and chemistry
must be made use of. To time the
watches properly, not only are the ob-
servatoiy time signals firom Harvard
University used, but a separate ob-
servatory, fitted up with a recordings
chronograph and transit instrument of
a refined construction, has been erected.
A dark room, with all the apparatus for
experimenting in photographic processes
of reproducing dials, &c., is in full oper-
ation. Systematic experimenting in tem-
pering steel, in testing metals for their
physical properties, is carried on, and
some of the most exquisite physical ap-
paratus I have ever seen, I have seen in
these measuring-rooms. Those of you
who are microscopists, and who know of
the extreme accuracy of the small stand-
ards of length, made by Professor W. A
Rogers, of Harvard University, need only
be told that the most beautiful of his
smaller machines was built and used at
the Waltham Watch Factory, imder the
combined direction of himself and the
mechanical superintendent.
Given a scientific knowledge of the
raw materials, a certainty in their selec-
tion, and it becomes possible to repro-
duce the hand processes of manufactur-
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VAN NOSTRAND 8 ENGINEERING MAGAZINE.
ing the small parts of watches by auto-
matic machines. This requires the funda-
mental department of the company — a
well appointed machine shop, in which
their machinery can be constructed and
repaired. This machine shop occupies
the three stories of a wing 160 feet long.
The operatives from this department
have the constant supervision of the ma-
chines, which are systematically arranged
along the fchree and a-haif miles of work
benches which extend over the nearly
five acres of floor space covered by the
main buildings. For driving the ma-
chinery throughout the factory, a Corliss
engine of 125 horse-power works through
39,000 feet of belting, 10.600 feet of main
shafting, 8,000 feet of wall rods, and
4,700 pulleys. The nimiber of operations,
most of them accomplished by automatic
machinery, which is "tended" by a yoimg
woman or man having no special knowl-
of horology as a whole, in the manufac-
ture of, say, the common "IS-size full
plate, keyless, four-pair jewels" watch
movement is, by count of the twenty-five
foremen of the different departments in
which it is made up, about 3,746.
The American system of manufactur-
ing by interchangeable parts means much
more than making a part under the roof
of a factory, buying other parts in the
' market, and obtaining other parts by the
piece from workpeople who five in their
own cottages, for which they are paid at
piecework rates. It means the estoblish-
ment of working facilities for the entire
manufacture. That everything is made
on the premises, not according to the
plans or ideas or methods of work of in-
dividual workmen, but under the direct
supervision of a company's foreman, ac-
cording to gauges the company furnish,
under conditions of time, cleanliness and
care which the company prescribe. The
operative himself is a machine. There is
as little as possible variation in the drill
of a great factory.
The results of this are shown in a
promptness of delivery, in a uniformity
of products, utterly unattainable under
the prevalent methods of what is called
the factory system outside of the United
States where the work of operatives is
collected from their local habitations to
be made up into timepieces at a central
putting together establishment.
A little later in the evening we shall
see, from the photographs, the various
departments of a great watch factory,
and I pass now to other considerations
of interest to you. It is already appar-
ent to you that the master-mind of such
a company is to be chosen for his general
executive qualities, and his ability to con-
duct a manufacturing business, rather
than his technical knowledge of watches.
In 1884 there were 2,500 operatives in
the factory we have quoted. Only a few,
and those in the designing and putting
together departments, were professional
horologists. There are machinists, and
draughtsmen, and die sinkers, and steel
workers and gilders, and enamelers and
photographers, and men of many trades,
each working in their own departments.
Their tools are found by the company,
they work on the company's premises,
they report at a given hour, have certain
intervals for rest, and go home at an-
other hour. They are exposed to the
strictest supervision during the progress
of their work, and they have every atten-
tion given to their personal comfort.
Plenty of light, plenty of fresh air, and a
comfortable warmth pervades every part
of the enormous buildings, to which the
2,500 (in 1884) operatives repair every-
morning for their duties. Taken all in
all, I believe it is the most intelligent
body of operatives in any industry known
to me. Making up, as they do, the com-
munity in a very cultivated part of New
England, they have every opportunity in
the way of libraries, literary clubs, church
life, and social advantages. One is very
much impressed with the intelligence,
taste, and general attractiveness of the
operatives generally, and the women in
particular, as they sit at their benches
and machines. The delicacy of their
work and the esprit de corps of the entire
body are the two conducing factors to
this result. In giving employment, a
good character is insisted on. It is
rather a remarkable fact that almost the
entire number are native bom American,
with very few, almost none, of the Irish,
who are most numerous in other systems
of manufacturing. The morality of the
young women is on a par with their gen-
eral intelligence. It is very rarely in-
deed, that one is found against whom
the breath of scandal is heard. Marriage
amongst the opera,tors is frequent, and
the romance of life is not ignored.
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AMERICAN WATCHMAKING.
67
Homes are made as well as watches.
There has grown up in the factory the
spirit of interest in its social associations,
in its products, and an interest in its
reputation, which can only come of a
large, industrious, intelligent, well-fed
and well-paid community. The company
finds it to their interest to maintain these
feelings among the operatives. Parks
are laid out; cottages, which are both
tasteful and healthful, are built; good
drainage and ventilation are secured;
trees, flowers, lawns are used to beautify
the homes, streets, and grounds about
the factory buildings. A large hotel has
been built for the exclusive use of the
young women who are not married, and
who wish to Hve in it. I had the pleas-
ure of dining at this hotel, in the dining-
room at the tables of which about 120
young women were seated. The meal
was nicely served and consisted of roast
beef, roast mutton, potatoes, com (maize),
turnips, with apple pie and coffee and
cheese for dessert. The charge which
the company makes for board alone is
$2.25 per week, or for board and lodging,
$3 per week. Breakfast is served at
half-past six in the morning. Now,
when we consider the average pay of the
women on the rolls is $7.98 per week, it
can be understood that they have a mar-
gin for dress and other things which
makes their life quite attractive to them.
With their general intelligence there is
borne the natural desire to become skill-
ful and expeditious in their work. They
become specialists with the new machines
put into their hands. They know ma-
chinery to be their friend, for anything
which will make two watches where one
was made before, will halve the cost of
the watch, but will not halve their wages,
and will make their services still more
valuable to the company. They are not
afflicted with trade notions or customs ;
they are thoroughly malleable in their
methods of wor^ and quick to do any
new thing required of them. They are
inventive and suggestive.
Under the administration of such great
establishments there have grown up com-
pletely new methods of work. The claim
that the machinery, processes, methods
of organization of a great American watch
or clock company are not original, is as
ridiculous as to say that the Falls of Ni-
agara are not original. The one is as
much a product of the inventive genius,
the disregard of trade laws and cusjboms,
the intelligence and necessity of produc-
tion of an Anglo-Saxon country, separated
by 3,000 miles of water from any other An-
glo-Saxon country, as the Falls of Niagara
are the product of the waters of the Take
basin, and the topography of its outlet.
The machines of these places are unique.
They must be so, they are made on the
premises to suit the individual needs of
the estabhshmeni For some of the im-
portant processes there are as many kinds
of machines as there are distinct factories
in the United States.
So far we have been referring to the
middle class of watches, made in lots of
many thousand at a time, and designed
for general use. But it is evident that it
needs only the addition of the adjuster s
skill to produce on the same system,
timepieces of a very high precision of
running. So the leading American watch
companies have put forward the claim
that it is only necessary for them to add
an adjusting department to their factory
organization, and they will produce time-
pieces which will be much less in price,
and equal in performance to the time-
pieces made by the very best foreign
producers on the old systems. So such
adjusting departments have been added
to several of the leading factories. In
these departments a watch is rated and
adjusted to position and temperature for
periods ranging from a week to six
months, depending on the price at which
the movement is to be sold. The watches
which are meant for the very finest time-
keeping are adjusted at two extreme
temperatures, and in the fine positions
of dial up, dial down, pendant up,
pendant right, and pendant left. The
adjustment of a watch is somewhat anal-
ogous to the adjustment of sights on
a rifle. All the parts of an admirable
weapon may be there, and the sights may
be approximately right ; but it takes ac-
tual trial and the sHght adjustment of
the sights to make any given rifle do its
most accurate work.
As far as the success attained by the
American method in watches of the very
highest class' is concerned, I can do no
better than to quote the results of the
trials of timepieces at the observatory in
Yale College, made under the direction
of the Corporation of the College for the
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VAN NOSTRAND'S ENGINEERING MAGAZINE.
years 1881 and 1884 inclusive. Their
trials «are conducted at the Observatory
of Tale College, and involve the daily
comparison of watches in the following
positions and temperatures, for a totsl
period varying from six weeks for watches
of the highest class, down to twelve days
for watches of simpler adjustment, ac-
cording to the following schedule :
Test
No.
Position.
Approximate
Temperature.
Number of days trial for
Class Certificates.
n. m. IV.
Dial vertical, pendant up. .
Dial vertical, pendant right
Dial vertical, pendant left. .
Dial horizontal, dial down .
Dial horizontal, dial up. . . .
Dial horizontal, dial up. . . .
Dial horizontal, dial up. . . .
Dial horizontal, dial up. . . .
Dial vertical, pendant up. . .
Total number of days. .
60^0
60° to
60" to
60° to
60° to
34° to
95° to
60** to
60' to
70° F.
70° F.
70° F.
70° F.
70'*F.
38°
100°
70°
70°
10
1
1
10
7
42
18
12
or 12
12
The conditions excluding watches from
receiving certificates of any class were as
follows :
1. When the variation of rate with the
dial vertical and pendant up in classes I.,
II., in , and in the positions indicated
in class IV., exceeds 28.0 from one day to
the following day.
2. When the variation of rate between
the positions of " dial up " and " dial ver-
tical " exceeds 10^.0
3. When the variation for 1° F. ex-
ceeds 0*.3 between the ordinary tempera-
ture and the oven.
4. When the rate is greater than lOs.O
per day in any position.
The number of watches entered for the
period under consideration was as fol-
lows:
1880-81 219
1881-82 53
1882-83 41
1883-84 87
and the analysis of the results of watches
of the highest class for the four years, is
as follows :
1880-81.
1881-82.
1882-83.
1883-84.
Per-centage of watch movements receiv-
ing certificates of any kind, excluding
watches entered for rate records.
Number receiving Class I. certificates
Average mark of Class I. certificates
Average mark of the first five watches re-
ceiving Class I. certificates
45
22
68
79.4
83
) American,
[.Watch Co.
) Waltham.
88
12
68.6
77.0
82
Barraud &
Lunds,
London.
28
8
76.4
80.4
85
Vacheron &
Constantin,
Geneva
77
42
74.4
85.8
90 4
American
Watch Co.,
Waltham.
Highest mark received during the year. . .
Makers* name of watches receiving the
mark during the year
In reference to these " marks " I would I certificates on a scale of 100, of which 40
like to explain that they are aflixed to | are awarded for a perfect position adjust-
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AMERICAN WATCHMAKING.
59
ment, 40 for the capacity of a watch to
run at a Dniform rate from day to day. m
any given position^ and 20 for a capacity
to ran without a change owing to ordi-
nary changes of temperature. The tatle
shows, therefore, that in two of the four
years' trials one of the American com-
panies entered watches which were the
yery best in performance of all the
watches entered, and that the watch
showing the highest record of any en-
tered, was one of American manufacture.
I quote these results as conclusive evi-
dence that by the American system of
machine watchmaking^, watches may be,
and are produced, havmg all the fine run-
ning qualities of the best watches made
under the ordinary system at a much
greater cost.
DISCUSSION.
Mr. Whipple said, that having had an
opportunity of testing some of the watch-
es made at the Waltham factory, he could
bear out the statement as to their excel-
lent going qualities. The scheme for
giving marks indicating the value of
watches as timekeepers was the same at
Kew as at Yale, and he had to thank Dr.
Waldo for the great assistance which he
had rendered in the elaboration of the
present system. He believed the system
was very closely analogous to that which
had been employed for many years at
(Geneva, with one exception, viz., that at
Geneva and Neuchdtel monetary prizes
were awarded for watches which obtained
the highest number of marks. In Eng-
land, watchmakers had become alive to
the necessity of improving the manufac-
ture, and they had come to the conclu-
sion that there was some little good in
rating watches and having them certified,
though at the outset they ridiculed the
idea. He knew of an instance where a
customer had been told that a Eew cer-
tificate was worth nothing at all, as it did
not mean the watch would go well ; but
upon the customer pressing for a certified
watch, he found that the certificate added
fifty per cent, to the value. Another dif-
ference between the Yale and Eew rating
in the adjudication of marks, was that at
Geneva a greater proportion of marks
were given to accurate compensation.
Dr. Waldo and several horologists had
given it as their opinion that t£e attain-
ment of practically correct temperature
compensation was comparatively easier
than the attainment of correct rating in
position, and his experience tended in
great measure to confirm this. Many
more watches failed to obtain certificates
on account of their not going correctly
in varying positions than on account of
variation in temperature; and the art
and .mystery of compensating for tem-
perature appeared to be very well mas-
tered by the makers who sent their
watches to Kew to be certified. With
regard to making watches by machinery,
he might mention that this was now done
at Coventry, though whether successful
from a financial point of view he was un-
able to say. He had been told by one of
the managers that in one wing of the
factory watches were being made by
hand, and in another by madiinery, witli
a view to a comparison being made of
the relative cost of production by hand
and machinery. Many parts of a watch
must of necessity be better made by ma-
chinery than by hand ; but other parts,
such as screws, could be turned out at
less cost by hand by the operatives, as
the number required was not sufficient
to pay for machinery. As the escape-
ment wheel required to be made to the
greatest nicety, it could in all probability
be made much better and more cheaply
by machinery than by hand. Consider-
ing the large number of persons of the
lower classes who were out of employ-
ment, and whose services could be ob-
tained at a cheap rate, he doubted wheth-
er it would be a profitable speculation to
erect machinery in England for turning
out screws.
Mr. H. G^nney, speaking as a praciical
watchmaker who haa been at the Waltham
factory eighteen years ago, and as one
w^l had written and lectured on the sub-
ject, said he hoped the outcome of the
reading of this paper would be some-
thing practical for the art in general, and
also to watchmakers in particular. No
doubt England bad lost a good trade,
and for thw they had to thank the Brit-
ish Parliament, which, in 1843, refused
to grant a charter to a company for the
manufacture of watches by machinery.
Ingold, to whom reference had been made
in the paper, after passing his time be-
tween England, America and Switzer-
land, died almost unknown, but one of
his machines was still to be seen at the
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VAN NOSTRAND'S ENGINEERING MAGAZINE.
factory of Messrs. Qillet and Bland, at
Croydon. Watches were now made in
London by Mr. Nicholl, by means of ma^
chinery, and also by Mr. Gee, who em-
ployed over 200 men, and it would be
many years before the Americans would
be able to turn out watches to equal
these. There were two ways of looHng
at a watch, first, as a work of art, and
next, as a piece of commerce, and his
own opinion was that they had not yet
seen all that could be done in this direc-
tion. However great the success of the
American companies, they had not yet
surpassed the watchmakers horologicaliy.
Neither did they put such beautiful work
into their watches as would be found in
an English watch. He could not agree
with Mr. Whipple that it would not pay
to make screws by machinery on a large
scale if you only wanted a few at a time,
because he knew as a matter of fact that
it did pay. On behalf of the Clerken-
well watchmakers, he acknowledged that
they were under great obligation to the
Waltham Company for what they had
taught them, and thought that if they
were sensible they would take the lesson
to heart and endeavor to beat the com-
pany.
Mr. Bedford begged to call attention
to the fact that, in speaking of the fac-
tory at Waltham, Mr. Gkinney was speak-
ing of what he knew eighteen years ago.
Of course, in the present age, eighteen
years was almost like a century, as things
changed so rapidly. The factory and
machinery which was there eighteen
years ago was now all gone.
Mr. Qanney said that Mr. Dennison, of
the Waltham factory, was now in Birm-
ingham, and had been there eighteen
years, and he established a factory in
England sixteen years ago.
Mr. Eobert Bragge (Secretary of the
English Watch Company) was extremely
gratified to find that thanks were given
to those to whom they were due, and
that at last the labors of Mr. Dennison
bad been acknowledged. The reason
given by Dr. Waldo for the enormous
strides that machine watchmaking was
making in America was the true one, that
the people there found themselves face to
face with necessity, besides being unen-
cumbered by tradition. It was a new
field, and they entered upon it and went
ahead ; but in England they were not so
happily placed. If there was one disad-
vantage under which workmen were
placed, it was that of holding too much
to tradition, from which it was extremely
diflScult to emancipate them. They
made watches as they did for the same
reason that the Dutch built their boats,
viz., because their grandfathers had done
so before them. In Birmingham, there
was a factory which turned out a con-
siderable number of watches by ma-
chinery ; and it was only by the appli-
cation of machinery, and following on
the lines that had been indicated that
evening, that watchmaking could hold its
own in England. The company with
which he was connected had sent a good
many workpeople to America, but up to
the present, they had not had the chance
of sending any watches, owing to the
heavy import duty ; but he had no doubt
that by-and-by they would be able to do
even this. In conclusion, he begged to
offer his tribute of admiration for the
extremely fair and candid spirit dis-
played in this paper, and hoped that it
would spur Englishmen up to a spirit of
emulation, and lead them to achieve sim-
ilar feats to those which had been accom-
plished in America.
Mr. G, William Frodsham (Parkinson
and Frodsham) thought that the thanks
of all watchmakers were due to Dr.
Waldo for having given them such a clear
insight into the industry of watchmak-
ing by machinery in America; but the
system was not quite imknown to Eng-
lish manufacturers. He had just made
the model of a machine for maJring ordi-
nary watches, which he intended to take
out a patent for in America as well as in
England. When American watches were
first introduced into England, he made
the remark that he was very glad the
Americans were undertaking to supply
the millions, because it would give Eng-
lish makers time to devote to the manu-